The Pros of Cons

2 | Wait... How did I get Here?

TONI

The pain I felt wasn't something that could be put into words. Waking up had to have been the hardest task of my life in that moment. Because all I wanted to do was fall back asleep...

BANG!

"Gah!"

I was jolted awake. My eyes felt like they were being weighed down by rocks but I somehow managed to open them. Everything still seemed to remain dark.. and then the figures appeared.

"V-ake up."

I tried to respond, but only a weak groan came out. Suddenly, there was a clicking sound and something cold and hard pressed against the side of my face.

I opened my eyes further. A hand holding... a gun. 

A gun. Someone had a gun to my head. Literally. 

Panic was flowing into my body now. Realization was hitting me. Everything from Tinder Ryan to being hit over the head with something was suddenly fresh in my brain.

"P-please..." I croaked. My throat was parched. I would have done anything for a sip of water.

The barrel pressed harder against my skull, causing me to wince. I opened my eyes once again even wider. There were three guys from what I could see. One was noticeably taller than the other two. All were thickly built on the heavier side and they each wore a black balaclava — which did well to hide their identities.

"This doesn't have to take long," the one directly in front of me spoke. I gulped. His voice was low and slightly accented — I couldn't decipher exactly where from. "I'm assuming you know why you are here?"

"Wha... what?" Why I'm here? Did he expect me to answer that? I'm assuming, mister, that you brought me here rob me, murder me, rape me... what else do you think? "I swear... I don't know! I don't have that much money, but I promise to give it all. Take everything. Just, please, don't do anything."

A loud, ugly-sounding cackle came from man to my left. He was the heaviest of the bunch, giving off a vibe of 'I can crush you, if I want to' .

I, for one, tilted my head. I was genuinely confused. Did they not want money? Oh no... they just wanted to take advantage of me. I was about to go through this horrendous ordeal, and I had no way out of it.

"I have to say," the tallest one spoke again. "I didn't expect someone so young to be in this line of... work." He knelt down so he was at my level. Black, beady eyes stared into mine. "Let's skip the antics, shall we?"

I was speechless. I opened my mouth only to close it immediately. What the hell was going on? I frantically shook my head. "I'm not... you have the wrong person. I'm a..." I was about to say journalist, but realized that may not be the smartest thing to share in the moment. "I'm just a college student. My name is Toni Harvie, uh, uh, Antoinette but Toni. I swear to God. Look at my I.D., it's here—I have it."

That was when the hand holding the cold, hard gun came down hard against the side of my face. It felt like my entire world had ended in that moment. The pain was impossible to ignore, and I couldn't even move my hands to hold my head. I cried out.

"I know who you are. Stop playing around."

I could feel something warm trickle down my face. Blood. My blood.

I was going to die. I was barely into my twenty-seventh year of life and it was suddenly all going to be over. And for what? A Tinder date? Seriously?

Yes, these were my very last thoughts I was having. Perhaps I should have been thinking of my family, my dog, or the things I never got to do, but instead I was self-abusing. This is exactly how Toni Harvie would go out. A self-deprecating, unmarried, borderline-unemployed human.